Many thanks for the infor Alex!
With more than 8-decks setup, say 12 or 16 decks, not sure if the mainboard's configuration remains seemlessly functional other than better rating power supply is needed? We were thinking of testing the 12-decks on a 12Volts Car battery but quiet skeptical if;
1. 12Volts Acid-Lead car battery can be the power source?
2. Is the current mainboard configuration safely functional?
Best,
Chanh
With more than 8-decks setup, say 12 or 16 decks, not sure if the mainboard's configuration remains seemlessly functional other than better rating power supply is needed? We were thinking of testing the 12-decks on a 12Volts Car battery but quiet skeptical if;
1. 12Volts Acid-Lead car battery can be the power source?
2. Is the current mainboard configuration safely functional?
Best,
Chanh
Hi,
The difference in sound you noticed is not only because of the 4 versus 8 decks.
The Tantalums will also give you more dynamics and openness in comparison to the allen bradley ( which is always a bit warm and veiled in sound).
Due to the tantalums and dac not being burned in this will make the difference even bigger. After burning in your dac will present more color and detail and that can give you the impression it sounds less open, but do not let that fool you
So please do not jump to conclusions..........
The difference between 4 and 8 decks is there but not so big as you have heard it.
PS. The tent shunts do make a big difference in openness, dynamics and low level detail. I am very satisfied with my 4 decks with 16 shunts.
Usb through the wave io will be better; I2S always sounds better than spdif
Spdif is a nice addition for those who also want to use a cd drive on the dac. But for the best sound you should stick to I2S.
Can you elaborate more on these? Where do they go in and replacing what in the DAC Board? Any link?
Many Thanks!
For those of you with the new mainboard - is there a qualitative difference between sound from the spdif or usb inputs? Or do they sound the same?
The sound from the spdif is at very high class...even with spdif it is the best dac i have tried..but i will also say that usb ,with the right materiel (high res) is better
best Bjarne
The sound from the spdif is at very high class...even with spdif it is the best dac i have tried..but i will also say that usb ,with the right materiel (high res) is better
best Bjarne
Still not time to have tried this. But beware! with the dddac power supply, delivering max 1A, the max is 8 boards... for more you need to beef up the power supply. this can be easily done for the real DIY
place a larger Transformer on the board or next to it of minimum 50VA
place the TIP122 on a double larger heatsink. keep connections short.
alternatively add a heatsink to the existing one (heat bridge so to speak)replace fuse with 2A version
the rest of the board can handle the higher current without problems
Hi Supersurfer,
would you please check out this, part 4 ?
TWOGOODEARS - ??????????: A new Reinhard Huttenburg's review... a scientific gathering at Klaus' place - December 2013
I would like to pm you but see no button to do so ? Can you help me ? thanks
Hi,
I am since around one year in posession of the Doede Dac. I thought it was time to write a review so here it goes:
My setup consists of:
- 4 dac boards
- modified on board shunt regulators (Tent labs), 16 in total
- allen bradley IV resistors, will be changed for Audio Note Tantalum next week
- salas shunt regulators for the dac and wave IO
- balanced connection to input transformer of my tube amps (audio consulting silver volume transformers)
- alix computer board with mpd pup software and linear power supply (tried raspberry pi first but it is not powerfull enough)
- streaming from a NAS
- all controlled with Mpad ipad interface (Super Cool and easy!)
As former designer and current owner the high end CD player of Bow Technologies, (modified with pcm 1794 dac with tubed output), I have been looking for a nice streaming setup without the illusion of bettering my beloved CD player.
Listening to several commercial streaming devices, including very expensive ones, they always sounded less detailed, less organic, less analogue, less real.
However my computer music database was expanding and I opted for the dddac design as a second music source.
After the basic build was ready I was surprised by the sound quality, it came near my CD player and was clearly better than all the commercial stuff I knew.
This was promising.........
Changing the power supplies, building a nice USB cable and connecting balanced to my amps without a capacitor made it clearly better than my CD player and made me very happy!
(This has lead to a lot of work, making bit perfect rips of my complete CD library, but now I can be a couch potato when listening to music with my ipad................
Now, after almost one year my CD player is covered with dust and ready for retirement.
Some notes on high resolution audio streaming:
High resolution audio failed to give me the satisfaction it should be able to. This has several causes.
1) there are 24/192 issues that are really worse than good a good red book remaster. Some Eagles re-issues are famous for clipping for instance
2) there are also upsampled re-issues, you will understand that upsampling does not really provide higher resolution
3) on the other side: a lot of good 24/192 issues are really bad musical performances
4) 99% of the best music is not available in high resolution, so we will have to do with red book
I got my hands on some good high resolution issues from Patricia Barber and Miles Davis that are really better sounding than my own MoFi gold disk issues, so it is possible!
So, how do we persuade the music industry to improve the quality?
For the time being, I am very happy playing all my music, being red book or better through my DDDAC.
I want to thank Doede for a very nice design and for his support. Cheers Doede
I have build a second dac for a friend and probably more will follow. I also expect the sound quality will develop even more with Lucian designing a new wave IO and daughter board and mpd pup software being updated for higher performance.
This design shows that open cource and non-commercial design by enthousiasts betters what the industry can do
Regards,
Hello Supersurfer,
I agree with you about high resolution audio.
I think the most imported thing is the recording, if the recording is bad then high resolution will not help to get a much better sound.
Here's what one of the guys on hifiwigwam just reported:
I've just had notification from Doede today that my kit is on the way. Only a lowly 1 x DAC for now, but still very excited
Going to start off with adding shunt regulators as I've found individual low noise regulation makes a big difference with digital audio gear.
My amplifier project is close to finishing. I am looking forward to building the DDDAC 4 deck kit with the original main board (no SPDIF). I am using Deode's custom Sowter transformers at the end of the thing. I am looking at chassis choices, external switches, IEC input options, and of course possible component upgrades. I have 2 questions at this time.
1) What is the recommended Ra/Rb for the 4 deck, in total ohms? (bonus question : will the leads from the 2 watt Audio Note Tantalums fit the holes without modification?)(suggestions for other high quality tantalum resistors that fit without drilling?)
2) Is the "secondary load" 10K resistor still recommended for the Sowters? If so, does it go across the DAC side of the transformer? or the output side? I see a slot for "optional filter" resistor on the new board, so I am thinking on the DAC side, across (+) and (-)?
The rest looks pretty self explanatory, and with high quality components in the kit. Thanks again Deode!
1) What is the recommended Ra/Rb for the 4 deck, in total ohms? (bonus question : will the leads from the 2 watt Audio Note Tantalums fit the holes without modification?)(suggestions for other high quality tantalum resistors that fit without drilling?)
2) Is the "secondary load" 10K resistor still recommended for the Sowters? If so, does it go across the DAC side of the transformer? or the output side? I see a slot for "optional filter" resistor on the new board, so I am thinking on the DAC side, across (+) and (-)?
The rest looks pretty self explanatory, and with high quality components in the kit. Thanks again Deode!
if you only populate Ra it is 34 Ohm for 4 decks...
the 10 k should go at the secondary, so at the output side as you say
optional HF filter slot is for capacitors, these you can put between the input legs from the transformer if you like to try. some like it others not. value aprox 47 to 100 nF
thanks for the positive feedback !
the 10 k should go at the secondary, so at the output side as you say
optional HF filter slot is for capacitors, these you can put between the input legs from the transformer if you like to try. some like it others not. value aprox 47 to 100 nF
thanks for the positive feedback !
Ok I'm in need of a little help.
DDDAC board. Has two holes to receive the shunts, the Tent Lab shunt regs have three legs and I'm not sure how to joint the two ???
While your looking at the DAC can you see any faults?
Thanks!
DDDAC board. Has two holes to receive the shunts, the Tent Lab shunt regs have three legs and I'm not sure how to joint the two ???
While your looking at the DAC can you see any faults?
Thanks!
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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